Though it was actually his 11th movie, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective would ultimately go down in history as Jim Carrey’s big breakthrough. Carrey’s portrayal of the eccentric, borderline insane animal lover left such a mark on moviegoers that Morgan Creek Productions immediately cranked out a sequel to cash in on the original film’s success.
Looking back, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Carrey playing Ace Ventura, but if you can believe it, several different people were approached before they settled on the In Living Color star. And when you start digging into everyone the filmmakers considered, it becomes pretty clear that they had no idea what they were looking for initially.
One of the first actors who was offered the lead was Rick Moranis. The Ghostbusters star ended up doing The Flintstones that same year, and some have suggested that he turned down Ace Ventura for that reason. The names that were thrown around from there only get more and more random. Several sources have reported that both Judd Nelson of Breakfast Club fame and Die Hard’s Alan Rickman were in the running at one stage or another.
The List of Ace Ventura Actors Keeps Getting Stranger
Even Carrey’s In Living Color co-star David Alan Grier was given the chance to star prior to Carrey’s involvement. As Grier tells it, the filmmakers were also looking to have Rob Schneider appear with him in some capacity. However, Grier decided against it because he thought the movie would flop. He later said that he didn’t see what Carrey saw in the project, which was the opportunity to mold the character into whatever he wanted.
But we still haven’t gotten to the weirdest possibility that was floated. According to Eila Mell’s 2005 book Casting Might-Have-Beens: A Film by Film Directory of Actors Considered for Roles Given to Others, the producers briefly kicked around the idea of having Ace Ventura be played by a female. And which actress did they have in mind for the part, you ask? Evidently, Whoopi Goldberg was their top choice.
In the end, Morgan Creek’s James G. Robinson caught Carrey’s act while watching an episode of In Living Color, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The post Jim Carrey Almost Didn’t Play Ace Ventura, and the Other Options Were Pretty Wild appeared first on VICE.
